Earlier this week, I had a nice long chat with a friend and colleague of mine who started her business around the same time I started mine. We were discussing some of the things we’ve learned over the past year and one of the topics was something along the lines of advice we’d been given and how much of that advice we now agreed or disagreed with.

One particular piece of advice I remember getting that went against everything else I’d been learning was that, if you’re running a service-based business, you shouldn’t be worrying about blogging. The advice-giver said it was just one more thing you’d have to fit into your schedule and gave an example of one particular service-provider who had plenty of business yet they don’t even have a blog.

This didn’t really sit well with me but every time I’ve started to feel guilty for letting my blog go stale, that little piece of advice would pop into my head and I would wonder “do I really need to be blogging regularly anyway?”

Since I don’t have an answer to this question, I decided to ask people I trust and admire: Michael Martine, Grant Griffiths, John Haydon, and Danny Brown.

When I say “ask”, what I really mean is that I fired off an email at 1:30 a.m. sucking up to them and telling them how awesome I think they are (I do!) and by the time I woke up and checked my email this morning, they had all taken the time to respond which really says a lot about what kind of people they are to take time out of their late-Friday/early-Saturday to share their thoughts with me. Great guys, I tell ya.

Ok, enough of my rambling….here’s what they had to say:

From Michael Martine

You need to be blogging regularly if the date of post publication shows, because people have a bias against what they perceive as “old” information on the web. If you’re not displaying dates, then it doesn’t matter as much, but it still matters. The reason why it still matters is that regularly updated sites get crawled and indexed more frequently by Google, and this is generally better for your search rank position (provided you’re doing other necessary search optimization tasks). If you’re using WordPress self-hosted and you have the Google XML Sitemap plugin (which you should), then you can alter its settings to tell Google to crawl your content according to the frequency with which you publish.

People crave consistency, so establishing a rhythm is key, regardless of how many times a week you post. Posting frequently means you’ll generate more content at a faster pace, and the more relevant content found via search, the better for a site’s search ranking.

Your readers will respond favorably or unfavorably to changes in posting. Pay attention to their reactions, and adjust accordingly. On Remarkablogger, the majority of my readers indicated in a poll they’d rather receive larger doses of content less frequently. When I delivered, my numbers shot through the roof. You’d think posting less frequently would mean less traffic, but that has not been case. I now receive more traffic.

From Grant Griffiths

Short answer, yes.  And to even be more knee jerky, why wouldn’t you want to post regularly if you have a service-based business?

A service business is just that, it is a business.  And like any business, you want to market and promote your business.  You want to be found and you also want to be known as the place to go for information about your particular type of service-based business.

In fact, it has been shown that in today’s business world, 75% of those looking for a service-based business are going to the internet to find what they need.  And if you have a presence online, you are going to be found. But, more than that, you need to make sure you can be found and blogging will accomplish this.

Blogging as a service-based business on a regular basis also positions you as a thought leader or opinion shaper in your particular area of service.  There is no reason that a service-based business should not be blogging on a regular basis.

From John Haydon

Yes, yes yes! In order to create trust with folks, you need to give them value first – then they buy. Blog  posts (to me) are ways to give away free stuff to thousands of people at a low cost (you write the post only once, but it gets read a thousand times). You’ll notice that all of the successful real estate agents teach people how to buy a home or select a mortgage.

The second reason is SEO. I rank #1 on Google for “how to make a Facebook Page”. Part of that result is due to the sheer amount of posts I have on Facebook. I’m no expert, but I think Google also looks at how current an article is.

Note: John also followed up his email with a link to this post about relationship management.

From Danny Brown

I’d say you need to be blogging as regularly as you have something worthwhile to share to your readers (whether they’re potential clients or not). It doesn’t even have to be about your particular service, but an off-shoot of it that’s still relevant. It’s a great way of showing your skill sets, knowledge and passion all under one cool roof. But… if it’s just filler for filler’s sake, this will come across and put you back a bit.

So… yes, but only if it’s “worth it”.

Now watch the other guys completely contradict me

Nope, Danny, they didn’t! In fact, all four of you gave some great advice! And it confirms some of my own thoughts, especially when it comes to two of the main reasons I think blogging is a great “tool” for marketing your business – you’re providing fresh content for the purpose of search engine ranking and you’re providing value to your clients and readers who may become clients.

Thanks again to Michael, Grant, John and Danny!

To anyone else who may be reading, what do you think? Do you have a service-based business? If so, how has blogging (or not blogging) affected your business? If you don’t have a service-based business but you’re a consumer, would it influence your selection of a provider if they were blogging regularly?

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